


It's Called Fashion

by elsandry



Category: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Sequence - Joan Aiken
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 11:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elsandry/pseuds/elsandry
Summary: Bonnie and Sylvia start a trend.





	It's Called Fashion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovely_ericas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovely_ericas/gifts).



> I took the title from a meme and I'm not really sorry.

Bonnie kept the trousers, of course.   
  
Her parents laughed about it, while Pattern was dismayed.  "It was meant to be a disguise, Miss Bonnie.  It was meant to be temporary."    
  
"Pattern, I simply must keep them, after you put so much work into them, and at so much risk to yourself."  The wretched school had taught her that much.  "I didn't understand, before, how much work went into making my clothes, and Pattern, you must have been up all night to finish them in time.  And I used to have so many clothes - I suppose they're all gone now.  That makes my boy clothes all the more precious to me."    
  
Pattern's expression softened. The boy's clothes were folded and tucked away in the back of Bonnie's wardrobe, and that was that.    
  
  
At least, until that autumn when the weather turned cold again, and Bonnie dressed herself in the boy's outfit once more.  It was warm and practical, after all, even if it was starting to be short in the legs.  Pattern threw her hands up in the air but did not try to argue with Bonnie.  She was, perhaps, expecting Bonnie to outgrow this affectation.   
  
In a way she was right.  By the next winter, Bonnie had outgrown the trousers, which were far too short, and the matching shirt quite uncomfortable.  Bonnie pleaded, and flattered Pattern, until finally Pattern gave in and made Bonnie new trousers.  They were made of much finer materials this time, such as a young man of Bonnie's station might wear.  Pattern had taken a few liberties, now that Bonnie wasn't pretending to be a boy, and the trousers had a few distinctly feminine aspects.    
  
Bonnie adored them, and would have slept in them if she'd been allowed.    
  
So it went, for the next few years, with Bonnie wheedling new trousers of Pattern as needed.  Bonnie wasn't entirely unaware of how unusual they were, and how people looked at her strangely, so she generally reserved her trousers for when she planned to be outdoors.  Riding and skating and almost anything that involved exertion were easier in her trousers, not even Pattern could deny that.  Aunt Jane had been positively scandalized when she'd seen how Bonnie was dressed.  Being the well-bred lady that she was, she tried gently to steer Bonnie towards what she considered to be more lady-like pursuits.    
  
Bonnie didn't really mind.  Old Aunt Jane meant it kindly, and it didn't cost Bonnie anything to play along to make her happy.  Still, knowing Aunt Jane's opinion on the matter, and knowing how Sylvia loved their aunt better than anyone in the world, Bonnie was more surprised than anyone when, the winter they were sixteen and nearly sixteen, Sylvia asked for trousers as well.    
  
Pattern, frankly, stared at Sylvia in astonishment.  "Not quite like Bonnie's trousers.  I have an idea for something a bit less shocking."  She produced a set of sketches.  The trousers she'd drawn were wider in the legs, enough that they could perhaps pass for a skirt when one was standing still.  The shirt was appropriately more feminine to match.    
  
"Oh, they're lovely," Bonnie gasped.  "Pattern, can you make my next trousers a bit like that?"    
  
Pattern would have given Sylvia anything she asked for, to say nothing of Bonnie's parents.  And Sylvia, who had been accustomed to so little, asked for very little, even years later.  Pattern, who would have made clothing for Sylvia that was far more unusual than what she asked for, set to work with less scolding than was usual for Bonnie's requests.   
  
  
Their new outfits were lovely and finely made; Pattern's professional pride would accept nothing less. She grumbled to them, saying that if her girls were to roam about dressed as boys, she would still have them looking their best.    
  
Bonnie twirled around, admiring her trousers, with their legs somewhat narrower and more fitted than Sylvia's were.  She looked in the mirror, pulling her curls back in such a way that she could perhaps pin them under a hat.  She had passed as a boy once before, but she didn't think she'd be able to do so now, not without more effort than it had taken when she was younger.  Bonnie grinned at herself.    
  
She turned to Sylvia, who was fingering the fabric of her own trousers with a thoughtful look.  Sylvia's outfit was more ruffled and feminine than Bonnie's own, though Bonnie could see how they both followed Sylvia's original sketches.  When Bonnie looked at her own reflection, she saw a young woman about to run off on adventure.  Sylvia made the ensemble look elegant.  "Oh Sylvia, you look darling.  But somehow you don't look happy.  Are you all right?"    
  
"It's all right, Bonnie.  I couldn't let you do this alone, could I?"    
  
Bonnie frowned, not liking that evasion.  "It's not just about me anymore.  Are <I>you</I> all right?"    
  
Sylvia smiled.  "I am fine Bonnie, really.  This is all very different, but I'm finding that I don't mind at all.  I'm not like you.  I could have worn skirts for the rest of my life and been content.  But I've been thinking about the possibilities, and I quite like what I see."     
  
Bonnie thought it over, and while Sylvia had always been happy enough to accompany Bonnie on her adventures, she had also been equally happy to work on her embroidery or sit inside reading.  "We can have both," Bonnie said, half to herself at first.  "We can have boys clothes and like them, and we can still love our prettiest skirts just as much."    
  
"They're not boys clothes," Sylvia said, quietly but firmly.  "They're our clothes.  We're girls - young women now, I suppose - so they're women's clothes."    
  
Bonnie reached out impulsively and pulled Sylvia into a hug.  "Sylvia, you're wonderful."    
  
"This is important, Bonnie, more important than you realize.  You could wear trousers as often as you wanted, and your father would allow it and protect you."  Bonnie knew it was true.  She hadn't realized how much her father had indulged her until she'd thought him gone.    
  
"Someday, when you inherit, you can do whatever you please.  People might talk unkindly about you behind your back, but no one will stop you.  They wouldn't even dare be unkind to your face, not with your family being who they are.  Other women don't have that option.  When I told you I couldn't let you do this alone, that was true, but I'm not doing it only for you.  If people like you and I and even your mother wear trousers, it will make it more acceptable for others to do so as well."    
  
Bonnie might have felt bad for not thinking this through herself, except that Sylvia explained it so gently.  "You think it will spread that far?  Wait- what was that about my mother?"    
  
Sylvia grinned, a bit slyly.  "Your mother's a more accomplished rider than both of us put together.  You don't think she'll be interested once she sees the possibilities?  It ought to smooth things over with Aunt Jane, in any case."    
  
  
Sylvia was correct, as she so often was.  People saw them together and saw fashionable, if odd, young women, where before they had looked at Bonnie and seen an unruly child playing.  Rumors began to spread, and they spread even further the next spring when Lady Green rode along on a fox hunt, looking sharp in new trousers of her own. 


End file.
